Wan Seok Yang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at St. John’s University, New York, and has a broad research background in ferroptosis biology, chemical genetics, and cell and molecular biology.

Before joining St. John’s University, Wan was a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Brent Stockwell’s lab at Columbia University and was a core member who discovered ferroptosis and laid the groundwork for elucidating the ferroptosis mechanism. These discoveries include the identification of RSL3, a canonical ferroptosis inducer, from a high-throughput screening of small molecule library, the iron-dependent nature of ferroptotic cell death, and the identification of GPx4 as a target protein for RSL3.

Prior to joining Columbia University, Wan was in South Korea, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in Cell and Molecular Biology and a B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.